July 25, 2023 to July 27, 2023
Heathrow to Oxford
Researching the website for the Thames Cycle Path, this route from London to Oxford, 90 miles mostly along National Cycle Routes #4 and #5, sounded like our ideal itinerary. And it cut very close to Heathrow, so we could easily pick it up after leaving the airport. At Staines we picked up the #4 -next stop Windsor Castle. Except it was not that easy. Either riding on the wrong side of the road affected my ability to read signs, or we lost the #4, but we kept finding ourselves having to ride on the sidewalk beside a busy roadway with no bike lane or a zigzag of narrow residential streets. Eventually we made it out to quiet roads, past wealthy neighborhoods and came to the Long Path leading, majestically, up to Windsor Castle. Except the signs were very clear: "Pedestrians Only. No riding or pushing bicycles." Never seen that before! So we rode around to the main entrance. The castle was closed to visitors, possibly Charles was in residence, so we ate our lunch out front and continued on.
The Thames Cycle Path seems a misnomer (at least for this section) as we still hadn't seen the river. The afternoon continued through suburban housing and some farmland as we became ever more accustomed to riding on the left. Another challenge of cycle touring in this part of England is the lack of campgrounds that accept tents. Perhaps this was why we had seen no other cycle tourers and people we encountered spoke to us as if they were surprised to see people with loaded bicycles. Our earlier internet search had shown a spot near Henley-on-Thames so, although it was a few miles off the route, we headed there. Crossing over the old stone bridge, with views of the posh moorings, long rowing sheds and cute waterside pubs was our first real scene of the Thames and the type of English scene we had expected.
The Embers Camping was delightful. It is what they call a pop-up campground in a space where they cannot get building permission for any permanent structures so the reception is a converted shipping container, the loos and showers are modular made to look like outhouses and a couple of huge tent and awnings are strung up and artfully lit for common spaces to shelter. Most fellow campers were families so there were lots of younger children running about flying kites, playing football and tag. Then we realized that the entire space was car-free; everyone had to park out at the front.
Day 2 the GPS routed us mostly along the National Cycle Route #5 through beautiful English countryside, where we could almost picture the wealthy people from the elegant homes with vast stables, riding their horses through the shady beech and oak forests shooting pheasants and deer. Now that we are in England, it is striking how many people speak to us, especially after the reserved Scandinavians. Perhaps we stand out in our faded cycling jerseys and loaded bikes, but people come up and start chatting. On today's ride, a man said hello as he peddled past on particularly quiet stretch of road and we fell into riding side by side and spoke for a minute or two. Later as we pulled into the only coffee shop in the village of Stoke Row, the same man was sitting at an outside table and got up to greet us. We sat together, chatting easily about favourite places to ride both local and he generously insisted on buying us coffee!
As forecast, the rain started at 4pm just as we approached Oxford. Half an hour earlier we had passed the Durham Leys Caravan Site, but as the name implied, it was just an empty field with camper hook ups. We bought groceries and headed out to Green Acres, where we were glad to find a mostly empty campground with a convenient storage shed where we could shelter from the rain to make supper. The next day we would move into Oxford proper and re-join Kathleen and Robert for a few days visit and the ultimate reason we are here: Kathleen's graduation!
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Today's ride: 120 km (75 miles)
Total: 3,738 km (2,321 miles)
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